NBC/Comcast Wins The Olympic Rights For Games Starting in 2014

In a somewhat surprising twist, NBC has retained the TV rights to the Olympics through 2020, covering the next four Olympics. It looked as if FOX or ESPN, both of whom were in the running, may win the rights as the exit of Dick Ebersol seemed to signal of the NBC/Olympics relationship. It is rumored that NBC paid around 4.4 billion dollars for the rights, according to the Associated Press.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal beat out Disney’s ESPN/ABC and News Corp.’s Fox Sports for the rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the 2018 and 2020 Games, whose host sites have not been selected yet.

NBC already has the rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The IOC hasn’t officially announced NBC as the winner yet. IOC president Jacques Rogge is scheduled to hold a news conference at at 2 p.m. ET.